Kintaro

Sunday, 12 March 2006

I like trying new places. Some people tell me that a restaurant makes their best dishes at their grand opening to encourage people to spread their restaurants name to other people.

There is a new Japanese restaurant that opened a couple weeks ago at Leslie and 16th ave called Kintaro.

Like almost every other Japanese restaurant in Toronto, it's owned by people that are not Japanese. This case it's Chinese. Your other guess would probably have been Korean. Chinese and Koreans know where the money's at

The outside looks very inviting. The flowers on the floor tells you it just had its grand opening a couple weeks ago.

Inside it wasn't very impressive. The walls were painted white but some of the paint stuck out. Many of the decorations pasted to the wall looked like it was done by sloppy people. For example, the gold blocks sticking out of the wall didn't have an even coat of gold to them.

It was also very cold in that restaurant. I wish they turned on the heat.

Food prices were the usual. Not lower than other places.

The soup came. I was quickly reminded about the saying, "is the cup half empty or half full?". In this case, I was thinking half is half. Where's the rest?

We ordered pork cutlet on rice and some rolls. The pork cutlet was very soggy. Not a lot of people like that about fried cutlet. The rolls were nothing special. Fish wasn't too fresh. I didn't expect asparagus in my Dynamite Roll. I would have appreciated tempura bits but I guess that will do.

I wish I remember more about the experience. All I can remember is how cold it was and that I wouldn't go there again. If this is how you cook during your grand opening then it's best not to expect any better in the future. I say stay away from this place. I suggest trying the place across from Kintaro. I think it's called Ichiban.